Hector Macneill
Hector Macneill (22 October 1746 - 15 March 1818) was a Scottish poet.Bayne, 248. Life Overview MacNeill was in the West Indies 1780-86, and clerk on a flagship. He wrote various political pamphlets, 2 novels, and several poems, The Harp (1789), The Carse of Forth, and Scotland's Skaith, the last against drunkenness, but is best known for his songs, such as "My Boy Tammy," "I lo'ed ne'er a Laddie but ane," and "Come under my Plaidie."John William Cousin, "MacNeill, Hector," A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: Dent / New York: Dutton, 1910, 253. Wikisource, Web, Feb. 8, 2018. Youth and ecucation Macneill was was born at Rosebank, near Roslin, Midlothian, the son of James Macneill, a retired captain of the 42nd regiment. He passed his early youth in the neighbourhood of Loch Lomond, Stirlingshire, where his father tenanted a farm, and received his elementary education at Stirling grammar school, under the Dr. David Doig to whom he dedicated his 'Will and Jean.' In his 14th year he went to Bristol to a relative, a West Indian trader, who interested himself in him as his name-sake, and sent him as a prospective sailor in a vessel going to St. Kitt's. Career Disliking the sea, Macneill lived a year with his relative's son in St. Kitt's, and afterwards served 3 years with a merchant in Guadaloupe, which he left in 1763 for Antigua. Having occupied, among other subordinate posts, that of assistant to the provost-marsnal of Grenada for three years, he returned home about 1776, in consequence of the death of his mother and sister. Eighteen months later his father died, when he invested the small heritage he acquired in an annuity of £80. Circumstances soon constrained Macneill to find new employment, and in 1780 he became assistant secretary, first in Admiral Geary's flagship with the grand fleet; and secondly in the flagship of Sir Richard Bickerton in Indian waters, each engagement lasting three years. In an interval of peace he visited the caves of Cannara, Ambola, and Elephanta, and described them in vol. viii. of the Archæologia, in 1787. His prospects in India being "blasted by an unexpected change of administration at home",author's note to Scottish Muse, 1. 117 he returned to Scotland and hoped to live by literature. Settling for a time near Stirling, Macneill found literature unremunerative, and about 1786, receiving influential letters of introduction, he went to Jamaica, where he secured posts for two of his sons, but no satisfactory engagement for himself. Returning to Scotland, he spent several years with friends, chiefly with Major Spark, Viewforth House, Stirling, where he wrote some of his best songs and poems. He also contributed to the Scots Magazine,' of which for a short time, about 1790, he is said to have been editor. Troublesome health induced him in 1796 to revisit Jamaica, where his early friend, John Graham (memorialised in his Scottish Muse), settled on him an annuity of £100. Returning with restored health he settled in Edinburgh, where he became well-known and popular. He was a good conversationalist, somewhat acrid at times over changed customs, and strenuous in advising ambitious youths towards honest industry and against literature. He died in Edinburgh. Writing In his boyhood Macneill had attempted dramatic compositions in imitation of Gay. An address 'To Mrs. Pleydell, with a Pot of Honey,' 1779, makes tolerable fun over the Catholic Emancipation Bill. His first characteristic poem, 'The Harp, a Legendary Tale,' appeared in 1789. Then came his ballad on drink, ' Scotland's Scaith, or the History of Will and Jean,'1795, followed in 1796 by 'The Waes o' War, or the Upshot of the History of Will and Jean.' Prompted, perhaps, by Alexander Wilson's rough but forcible ballad, ' Watty and Meg,' Macneill has related in these two poems an eventful and pathetic history. Both pieces have passed through many editions. The Links o' Forth, or a Parting Peep at the Carse of Stirling, 1796, is somewhat heavy. The Memoirs of Charles Macpherson, Esq., a thinly veiled autobiographical novel, appeared in 1800. In 1801 Macneill published his poetical works in two volumes, of which the second edition appeared in 1806, and the third, with portrait and plates by Stothard, in 1812. They were reprinted in one volume in 1866. The Pastoral or Lyric Muse of Scotland, afterwards called The Scottish Muse, appeared in 1809. Two anonymous poems, conceived in a stern Nestorian spirit, are 'Town Fashions, or Modern Manners delineated,' 1810, and 'Bygane Times and Late-come Changes,' 1812. A novel, 'The Scottish Adventurers,' also belongs to 1812. Interested in the Jamaica slave-trade — a legend making him a temporary slave-driver himself — Macneill published in 1788 a defensive pamphlet 'On the Treatment of the Negroes in Jamaica,' which he afterwards desired to suppress. Macneill is chiefly remembered by his 'Will and Jean,' and by such Scottish songs as 'My Boy Tammy,' 'I lo'ed ne'er a laddie but ane,' and 'Come under my Plaidie,' which have simplicity and sincerity of feeling, and graceful melody. Publications Poetry *''The Harp: A legendary tale, in two parts''. Edinburgh: Martin & McDowell, at the Apollo Press, for P. Hill / J. Johnson, London, 1789. *''Scotland's Scaith; or, The history o' Will and Jean: An owre true tale''. Edinburgh: P. Hill / A. Guthrie, 1795; Edinburgh: D. Willison, for A. Guthrie / Manners & Miller / A. Constable, 1800. *''The Waes o' War; or, The upshot o' the history o' Will and Jean''. Edinburgh: A Guthrie, 1796. *''Politics; or, The history of Will and Jane: A tale for the times''. London: A. Paris, for Vernor & Hood, 1796. *''An Advice from an Old Lover to a Young Wife''. Glasgow: Brash & Reid, 1798. *''The Links o'Forth; or, A parting peep at the Carse of Stirling. Edinburgh: Archibald Constable / et al, 1799. . *''Poetical Works. (2 volumes), London: T.N. Longman & O. Rees / Edinburgh: A. Guthrie / Manners & Miller / A. Constable, 1801; New York: L. Nicholls, for Samuel Crawford, 1802. Volume I, Volume II *''Poetical Works''. Edinburgh: J. Ballantyne, for Mundell & Sons, 1806. Volume I, Volume II *''The Pastoral; or, Lyric muse of Scotland: In three cantos. Edinburgh: George Ramsay, for Archibald Constable / John Murray, London, 1808; Philadelphia: M. Carey, 1813. *''Town Fashions; or, Modern manners delineated; with James and Mary: A rural tale. Edinburgh: W. Blackwood, 1810. *''Poetical Works. Philadelphia: A. Small, for Benjamin Chapman, 1815. *''Bygane Times and Late Come Changes. Edinburgh: William Blackwood, 1811. *Select Poems (edited by E. Sanford) in Works of the British Poets: Vol. XXXIX, 1819. Novel *''Memoirs of the Life and Travels of the Late Charles Macpherson. Edinburgh: A. Constable, 1800. *''The Scottish Adventures; or, The way to rise: An historic tale. (2 volumes), Edinburgh:W. Blackwood / London: J. Murray / R. Baldwin, 1812; New York: Richard Scott, 1812. Non-fiction *''Observations on the treatment of the negroes, in the island of Jamaica''. London: G.G. & J. Robinson, 1788. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Hector Macneill, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Aug. 12, 2016. See also *List of British poets References * . Wikisource, Web, Aug. 12, 2016. Notes External links ;Poems *Hector MacNeill at Poetry Nook (38 poems) *Hector MacNeill at PoemHunter (48 poems) *Hector MacNeill at Inspirational Poetry ;About * Macneill, Hector Category:18th-century poets Category:19th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets Category:Scottish poets